San Bernardino County Public Health Department Director Trudy Raymundo, 48, and Assistant Director Corwin Porter, 51, who oversee the county Environmental Health Services Division and were present during the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino and survived, gave their first in-depth interview on Monday since the tragedy. (Will Lester/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)

San Bernardino County has received thousands of cards offering sympathy and support following the Dec. 2 mass shooting in San Bernardino. (Will Lester/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)

SAN BERNARDINO >> In a conference room at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, rows of sympathy cards with messages such as “Strength, courage, wisdom” and “Because we care” adorn the shelves. The cards and letters began pouring into the department following the Dec. 2 terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center, where 14 people were killed and 22 others wounded.

They were mailed from all over. The outpouring of love and support has not gone unrecognized.

“I don’t know of any other word to describe it other than amazing,” said Trudy Raymundo, director of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, on Monday. “We probably have hundreds, hundreds of cards.”

Corwin Porter, the Public Health Department’s assistant director, said, “That’s been very encouraging. It’s one of the bright spots that has kept our spirits up a lot through these times — the outpouring of concern and love and support.”

In their first sit-down interview since the Dec. 2 tragedy, Raymundo and Porter discussed how their department, which oversees the environmental health services division, has been moving forward. The pair also took the opportunity to express their appreciation to all the well-wishers whose cards, letters, posters, banners, and emails have flooded their offices in the months since the shooting.

Raymundo and Porter were present during the IRC attack and avoided injury by taking cover under tables. Environmental health services employees were attending an all-day training seminar the day of the attack, which the FBI declared the deadliest terrorist attack ion U.S. soil since 9/11.

Gunman Syed Farook, an environmental health specialist for the county, was among those in attendance at the training seminar but left around 10:30 a.m. He returned about 20 minutes later with his wife, Tashfeen Malik. Clad in tactical gear and armed with assault rifles, the Redlands couple opened fire on a crowd of about 70, killing roughly 20 percent of the environmental health services workforce. The couple were killed hours later in a shootout with police.

It had a crippling effect. Roughly 50 percent of the division’s employees remain on administrative leave, and the roughly 50 percent of those who have returned to work are on a part-time schedule. Retired employees have returned to help, and employees are also on loan from Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties, said Porter, adding that the county is actively recruiting to fill the 14 vacant positions left by those killed on Dec. 2, including Farook.

“I think we’re desperately trying to get in the rebuilding mode,” said Raymundo, a county employee since 1997 and Public Health director since 2012. “For many of the staff, I think they’re still very much in the healing process. It’s been difficult.”

Porter said on-site counseling services are being provided to employees, and a pool of staff have been made available to address any other questions returning employees may have.

Environmental health services staff housed in offices at the county Government Center and in Rancho Cucamonga have been temporarily relocated to another county facility neighboring the Public Health Department in downtown San Bernardino while security upgrades and renovations are performed. The work is expected to be completed in the summer, Porter said.

Through it all, Raymundo and Porter have had to deal with their own grief and trauma while also running the department.

“For me, actually seeing staff come back, helping the staff heal, helping support the staff has been my own healing process,” Raymundo said. “So for me, coping and healing has been helping them cope and heal, and that’s how I’ve been getting through the stressors of my own personal life as well as professional life. There’s been a big focus for me on watching them heal and rebuild.”

Porter said the first weeks after the tragedy were the hardest.

“We did a lot of grieving the first several weeks. We attended a lot of funerals,” Porter said. “Our spouses were a huge support for us. That support helped strengthen us.”

And support from the county family has also been a strengthening factor, he said.

“Getting back to work and getting back into the flow of things and rubbing shoulders with people that are also putting their best effort forward has really helped encourage and strengthen me as well,” Porter said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie and family and a team-type environment that exists with those folks, and that’s been encouraging.”

The Dec. 2 attack was a life-changing event for Raymundo and Porter, as was with the other survivors of the shooting. The little things in life most people take for granted are now more important to them than ever before.

“I’m more grateful for life and thankful for some of the smaller things,” Porter said. “Family has become more of a focus, a little more of a priority, following this. I think I don’t take them for granted as much as maybe I did. You get busy, you get in this grind and sometimes those important things fall by the side when they shouldn’t.”

Raymundo said she too has been spending more time with her family.

“I think it has added a whole new meaning to the idea that you’re grateful for being here,” Raymundo said. “It has really brought forward the value of family, the value of friendships, the value of the folks and the support systems that you have around you that you oftentimes take advantage of just because they are a normal part of your day.”

She said she doesn’t sweat the small stuff anymore, and focuses more on the big picture.

“I think before this I was pretty bad about stressing out on all these 10,000 moving parts, and now, it’s fine,” said Raymundo. “It’s about focusing on what’s really important. I’ve spent a lot of time really getting some quality time with my family, which I think a lot of times you tend to really take advantage of because they’re always there. and I think there’s always the assumption that they’re always going to be there. I think I’ve made a much more concerted effort to just hang out with my girls and hang out at home.”

As for the environmental health services division, employees who are returning to work are being provided some accommodations to help ease back into their jobs. For example, inspectors are being paired up and spending less time in the field until they are ready to go out on their own for longer durations, Porter said.

Although the memory of Dec. 2 will never be forgotten, those working in the environmental health services division will carry on and receive the support they need, Porter said.

“They’re resuming that normalcy. It’s a progression,” Porter said. “The normal that we get to will not be like the normal we were at before, but we’re optimistic they can become an exceptional division again.”

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for The Sun since November 1999. He started as a crime reporter and went on to cover a variety of beats including courts and the cities of Colton, Highland and Grand Terrace. He has covered San Bernardino County since 2009. Nelson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton. In 2014, he completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program.

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